AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD boy was threatened with a screwdriver in the school playground by a fellow pupil.

Steve Candy-Hewett, from Bearwood, said his son, Leo, was threatened to be stabbed in the eye by the boy, who was younger than him.

He received a phone call from Bearwood Primary and Nursery School after the incident on Thursday and has since been told by both the school and police that ‘safeguarding’ measures were in place to protect Leo.

Although the youngster was not hurt during the incident, and a teacher intervened, Steve said he was not reassured by the school’s response to the “traumatic” episode.

“I received a phone call from the school at about 3pm to say an incident had occurred at lunchtime where a child had produced a screwdriver and threatened to stab Leo in the eye,” Steve said. “The head teacher said the child involved was the only child she had ever excluded from that year due to the seriousness of the incident. He was only excluded for one day, though, which I find totally inappropriate considering how traumatic it was for Leo.”

Steve said the child threatened his son following a disagreement at an after school football club two days prior.

“For someone at such a young age to come into school with a screwdriver to attack someone with is totally unacceptable.

“After it happened, I had to phone the school back asking if Leo was ok coming home. He normally rides home by himself as the school’s just down the road, but we brought him home as we were so concerned about him.

“With something as serious as this, a pre-meditated attack, surely there has to be some safety measures involved. But the school told me they couldn’t bag search every child and said what happened was an isolated incident.”

A spokesperson for the school said they had “dealt with the issues in accordance with the school’s behaviour policy”.

She added: “No child was hurt in this incident, and we would like to reassure all parents that we place safeguarding of our pupils as our highest priority.”

Dorset Police said they received a report just before 2pm on Friday, March 17, that a boy had threatened an eight-year-old boy with a screwdriver at Bearwood Primary and Nursery School.

A spokesperson for the force said: “The incident is reported to have taken place on Thursday, March 16.

“Due to the age of the children involved the report has been referred to the relevant partner agencies to agree an appropriate resolution.”